Tuesday, December 14, 2010

City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments #4) by Cassandra Clare Cover Reveal and Excerpt

Isn't it fantastic?! Simon finally gets a cover and we get to see someone's face for once.  Clary's eyes are crazy and I love that she's wearing the Morgenstern ring.  If you are wondering why there are two people on the cover and why we get to see someone's face, Cassandra Clare had this to say...
"Why can you see the faces on the COFA cover?" and "Why are there two people on the COFA cover?"

Because City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire aren't simply continuations of City of Glass. They're a new trilogy, with a different feeling, and a new villain, and different challenges. That's why the titles are slightly differently composed — four words instead of three — and that's why this cover looks *slightly* different. It needed to be something that recalled the previous covers, but didn't look exactly like them, as that starts to give an old, stale feeling, as well as being misleading.

I specifically asked that we start showing character faces because I thought it would help differentiate TMI Cycle Two from the previous three. Also because, while there have been many lovely covers showing only parts of the characters' faces — it's a trend that started with the Gossip Girl covers — the trend was on its way out, and I didn't want the covers to look dated.

I understand there's a strong *everything should stay exactly the same!* feeling often — that change is bad, etc. etc — but do keep in mind one thing: the people who really have power over covers is bookstores. If Barnes and Noble hates your cover your publisher will take it back and change it. Even if it means pushing back publication. Bookstore opinions matter more than mine, more than my editor's - more than anyone's. And when S and S showed this cover to stores they said "Thank God you can see the faces; if you couldn't have, we really would have had a problem." So there's a good chance a cover that cut the faces off like the previous ones would have had to be changed anyway and might even have pushed the pub date back.

As for why there are two people, that, again, is part of showing that this is a new trilogy, that it really focuses around these characters as a team. To preserve continuity we had to start the two characters look on this book — without the Clary & Simon cover there would never be a Jace/Clary cover, an Isabelle and Alec cover, a cover, perhaps, with *all the characters .... * (Just throwing those out there, not promising anything!)

And yes. Clary's eyes have always been green. :)
Now for the excerpt...
Simon glanced toward the window. It was a brisk night, and the wind was blowing leaves across Second Avenue like handfuls of thrown confetti. There was a girl walking down the street, a girl in a tight belted trench coat, with long black hair that flew in the wind. People turned to watch her as she walked past. Simon had looked at girls like that before in the past, idly wondering where they were going, who they were meeting. Not guys like him, he knew that much.
Except this one was. The bell on the diner’s front door rang as the door opened, and Isabelle Lightwood came in. She smiled when she saw Simon, and came toward him, shrugging off her coat and draping it over the back of the chair before she sat down. Under the coat she was wearing one of what Clary called her “typical Isabelle outfits”: a tight short velvet dress, fishnet stockings, and boots. There was a knife stuck into the top of her left boot that Simon knew only he could see; still, everyone in the diner was watching as she sat down, flinging her hair back. Whatever she was wearing, Isabelle drew attention like a fireworks display.
Beautiful Isabelle Lightwood. When Simon had met her, he’d assumed she’d have no time for a guy like him. He’d turned out to be mostly right. Isabelle liked boys her parents disapproved of, and in her universe that meant Downworlders—faeries, werewolves, and vamps. That they’d been dating regularly for the past month or two amazed him, even if their relationship was limited mostly to infrequent meetings like this one. And even if he couldn’t help but wonder, if he’d never been changed into a vampire, if his whole life hadn’t been altered in that moment, would they be dating at all?
Such a big day for Simon!

You can find City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments #4) in stores April 5, 2011!!

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